Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“It’s something, at least.”
“If she’s only proud because she thinks being on TV means I’m successful, it’s going to feel a little hollow,” I said. “But I’ll give her a chance to treat me like a human. With respect.”
Harlan nodded. “At the end of the day, what matters most is that you respect yourself. If she starts to, as well, it’s just a cherry on top, right?”
“For the first time ever, I think I do respect myself,” I said, still feeling like I was in some sort of surreal cloud. “I don’t have to know what I’m doing all the time to feel like I deserve success on my own terms. Whatever the hell ‘success’ means, anyway.”
“Damn right,” Harlan said. “You’ve been a success the whole time I’ve known you, I can promise you that.”
I looked all around the brewery’s back patio and yard, watching a hundred happy faces eating, celebrating, and laughing. I’d had some part in making this place look as cozy and inviting as it did, from the lights to the plants and the little pathways all over the lawn. Everywhere I looked, I could see challenges that I’d faced—and miraculously, I’d been able to handle them. I’d had no idea what to do with the small runoff ditch near the edge, and now it was planted with the seedlings of what would become a rain garden.
And I was across the table from a man I loved.
The kind of thing I hadn’t even known could make my life feel so right. Like I belonged, in a way I’d never felt like I belonged anywhere, before.
After we’d eaten, we got up to mingle around for a while, talking to friends and fans of the show. An hour later, Kace really got the party started in the way he knew best. He’d hired a DJ, and as soon as the music started bumping, the whole patio turned into a dance floor.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting this when I pictured the patio renovation,” I said, shimmying with Harlan. “But I’m definitely not mad about it.”
He smiled, taking a sip of his beer and placing it on a nearby table. He danced closer to me and then pushed my back up against the wall, pressing his lips to mine.
“I fucking love this,” Harlan said in a low growl. “I can do this right here outside, and I don’t give a damn who sees.”
“Including the cameras,” I said, smiling at him as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
“When I get home tonight, I am going to lick every inch of you,” he murmured. “You make me so fucking happy.”
“After you lick me all over, can I make you watch kung fu movies with me?”
“Damn right you can.”
I hummed. “Now that’s love,” I told him.
He pulled me back out onto the makeshift dance floor, and we got lost in a crowd of our friends, dancing along to “Hooked on a Feeling,” which Kace was also dancing to like a madman.
Yeah. I definitely belonged right here.
I’d had to go through endings to get to my new beginning. The end of my era working on the farm, the only semblance of a “career” I’d ever known. The end of thinking I was a straight man. And, thank fuck, the end of a lifelong bout of impostor syndrome. Maybe it would never go away fully, but I was done letting it rule my life.
I had a new road ahead. With Harlan. Where we’d turn any amount of lemons into sweet, juicy lemonade. And where we’d always be each other’s best friends and deepest loves—the same way we’d always been, and in ways we’d never dreamed of before.
“Hey,” I said, leaning close to Harlan’s ear as a slower song came on. “We should play Do Not Come tonight.”
He leaned back, looking at me quizzically. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s where we try to touch, lick, and suck each other for as long as we can, in any way we want, and see who comes first.”
“And how exactly do you lose the game?”
I bit the inside of my cheek, thinking. “I think there are really only winners in this game.”
He laughed deeply, pressing a kiss beneath my ear and flooding me with warmth. I was already getting turned on thinking about playing that dumb game with Harlan, and with him kissing me like that, I was well on my way to being too hard out here.
“I’d love to play Do Not Come with you, then,” he said.
“I knew I loved you.”
Harlan leaned in again, kissing my lips this time. “I love you too,” he said as he put his arms around my waist, gently swaying to the music with me. “Forever, Goose.”
- The End -